Grandstanding and Venture Capital Firms in Newly Established IPO Markets

The grandstanding theory posits that young venture capital firms (VCs) will seek to build their reputations by taking ventures public early. In this study, we examine this theory in the Japanese IPO market. With the introduction of MOTHERS and NASDAQ Japan in 1999 and 2000, respectively, with the explicit intent of catering to smaller and younger companies, we are able to examine the influence of these new markets on grandstanding and the IPO process. We find that young lead VC-backed ventures go public at a younger age than mature lead VC-backed ventures and that young lead VC-backed ventures are more underpriced. However, we do not find that young lead VCs have relatively lower equity stakes at IPO. This latter finding is most likely a result of the introduction of the new markets.